The Defense Budget

In autumn 2011, Dr. Haffa gave presentations to the Committees on Foreign Relations in Tulsa, Oklahoma and in Wichita, Kansas on the impending cuts to the Defense budget. Given that these cuts are unavoidable, he offered a framework for analysis of what areas will probably suffer budget reductions, which areas can be cut without unduly sacrificing national security, and which capabilities and technologies should receive increased investment. Dr.Haffa’s accompanying interview on the Defense budget, on Tulsa radio station KWGS, can be accessed on the following link:

About Haffa Defense Consulting

The principal, Robert P. Haffa, Jr., brings a unique combination of military, academic, and defense industry experience to his analyses and planning skills. His 24-year Air Force career included operational flying assignments in reconnaissance and tactical fighter wings in Viet Nam, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea. He served in the Pentagon, directing Air Force long range planning and overseeing a Staff Group supporting the Air Force Chief of Staff. He earned a B.S. from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a M.A. in Political Science from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A former Professor and Acting Head of the Department of Political Science at the U.S. Air Force Academy, he has also taught at Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and American Military universities where his courses included topics on U.S. national security, the Defense budget and force planning. Dr. Haffa recently retired from Northrop Grumman Corporation where he directed the Analysis Center, the company’s “think tank” charged with understanding the future path of American defense and security policies, and developing specific analyses of those issues for both internal and external customers. Dr. Haffa is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, D.C.

Analogues of Stealth

The U.S. Department of Defense plans to invest hundreds of billions of
dollars in stealthy aircraft over the next several decades. Will low-observable
(LO) capabilities incorporated in military aircraft such as the B-2 bomber, the
F-22 air superiority fighter and the F-35 joint strike fighter prove as successful
and enduring as submarine stealth? To address that question, this paper briefly
explores antisubmarine warfare, examines the development and fielding of lowobservable
aircraft, and suggests analogues between stealthy platforms in the sea
and in the air...

The 2018 Bomber

In 2006, the Defense Department’s Quadrennial Defense
Review (QDR) concluded that the Air Force should accelerate
the fielding of its Next Generation Long-Range Strike System
(NGLRS) from 2037 to 2018. This paper inquires into the
rationale behind that decision.
The QDR decision to accelerate fielding the NGLRS was based
largely on anticipated requirements for future U.S. military
forces to operate in increasingly challenging theaters of operation against both sophisticated
and asymmetric adversaries. These changed conditions included...

Triad Monograph

On September 12, 1918 at St. Mihiel in France,
Col. William Mitchell became the first person
ever to command a major force of Allied aircraft
in a combined-arms operation. This battle
was the debut of the US Army fighting under
a single American commander on European
soil. Under Mitchell’s control, more than 1,100
allied aircraft worked in unison with ground
forces in a broad offensive—one encompassing
not only the advance of ground troops but
also direct air attacks on enemy strategic targets, aircraft, communications,
logistics, and forces beyond the front lines.

Deterrence and Defense

The United States, the other sovereign members of the nuclear club, and a number of
would-be proliferators have now entered what has been described as the “second nuclear
age.” This paper examines the deterrence and defense requirements presented by this new
age, arguing for the value to be gained through their integration. Offense-defense integration
will provide to national decision-makers timely and informed choices of security
options needed to address the spectrum of conflict likely to unfold within the second
nuclear age...

Future War

This paper examines the performance of U.S. armed forces in three major
post-Cold War military conflicts (Iraq in 1991, Kosovo in 1999, and
Afghanistan in 2001) to identify commonalities and associated trends that
may have implications for the conduct of warfare in the early 21st century.
Skeptics on the value of “lessons learned” from the three wars typically
emphasize the unique characteristics of each war and the unlikely prospects
that such conditions will apply in the future. In contrast, we believe that disparities
in the size, scope, and overall prosecution of each conflict strengthen
the likelihood that trends in common areas across all three wars will characterize
future conflicts...

Time-Sensitive Targets

Over the last decade and a half, the U.S. military has increasingly
focused on improving its ability to deal with targets for which timeliness
of attack is a key objective. In general, these targets are called
“time-sensitive targets.” To be sure, joint airpower has prosecuted missions
for which timeliness has always been a component, including close
air support, battlefield interdiction and offensive counter-air missions.
But there are new threats emerging, and new developments in producing
tools to address them...

Family of Systems

U.S. plans to modernize longrange
conventional strike have
undergone significant changes
over the last decade. In 2001, the
U.S. Air Force elected to cap the B–2 fleet at
the 21 already in service, based on the belief
that the stealth bomber did not offer the
advanced technologies needed to penetrate
the integrated air defenses expected to be
fielded by future adversaries. The Air Force
supposed the technologies required for the
next-generation long-range strike system—
supersonic cruise, large payload, and very low
observability—might not be available until
about 2037...

Fast Forward

The Pentagon has asked the military services, including the Air Force, to dig deep into their pockets to contribute savings to the nation’s forthcoming deficit reduction plans. One way the Air Force could contribute would be to accelerate the transition from its fleet of piloted U-2 Dragon Lady high-altitude surveillance planes to the unmanned Global Hawks. Each hour that the Air Force flies an unmanned Global Hawk in place of the U-2 saves the country about $16,000 — and last year the U-2 flew roughly 15,000 hours. Simply put, to reap considerable savings without jeopardizing the important high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) reconnaissance mission, the Air Force should retire the U-2 as quickly as possible...

Chuck Hagel's "First Supper"

As the new U.S. secretary of defense turns his attention to the defense industrial base, he should reach out to leaders of companies that provide our armed forces with the equipment required to underwrite national security. A good way could be by breaking bread in a collegial group gathered to consider the future of democracy’s arsenal....

What Keeps Defense Industry CEOs Up At Night?

When chief executives of companies within the nation’s defense industrial base take the podium to reassure their shareholders or inform Wall Street analysts of their financial progress and plans, they always prepare for the question, “What keeps you up at night?”....

Despite unprecedented success with intelligence, surveillance,
and reconnaissance (ISR) networks put in place over Iraq and
Afghanistan during the last decade, the joint force has yet to
come to grips with the challenges and range of possible options to employ ISR platforms in contested airspace.
The Department of Defense ISR Task Force that supported innovations such as Project Liberty and the battlefield airborne communications node in countering insurgencies in Southwest Asia and the Middle East has not yet addressed either the new strategic concepts or the operational challenges inherent
in an AirSea Battle in the Western Pacific or the Persian Gulf in an antiaccess/area-denial (A2/AD) environment.....

The Manned Unmanned Debate

The recent battle over whether to keep
flying the Air Force’s fleet of 32 U-2
spy planes or replace them with unmanned
Global Hawk aircraft looks
like a harbinger of future manned-unmanned
debates. After examining the advantages and
disadvantages of each aircraft, the Obama administration
included funding for both in the
fiscal 2016 Defense Department budget request.

This compromise reflects the challenges the
Pentagon encounters whenever it
tries to integrate unmanned aircraft
into a force. As the military services
and Congress contemplate a future
mix of multimission, manned and
unmanned combat aircraft, they
will try to weigh the cost effectiveness
of competing airframes....

Buying the B-3

The United States Air Force needs a new bomber. Its current fleet, comprised of B-52 bombers designed in the 1950s, B-1 bombers from the 1970s, and a small stable of B-2 bombers bought in the 1990s, is both undersized and too old. Fortunately, it will soon select a prime contractor to build the new Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B), which we shall refer to as the B-3.....